Speaker 1: Hello, sweet friend, namaste, welcome to a yoga flow where I'm going to just share some asanas that help me work through writer's block and feelings of being stuck creatively. Sometimes the best thing we can do when we feel stuck creatively or mentally is to actually get up, leave the project alone for a little while and go get moving somehow. Sometimes I like to go for runs, sometimes I like to go practice karate, but most of all, I love to practice yoga. So I'm going to share a few of these asanas that have helped me with opening up, releasing tension, releasing emotional stress, and working through, moving past creative blocks and writer's blocks. So I hope they help you. These are some things that have helped me hop into something comfy, roll out your mats, and let's do this together. We're going to begin today in extended child's pose. So bring your big toes together at the back of your mat and then walk your hands forward, bringing your chest down to the mat. And whatever extent feels comfortable to you, just lowering to the mat, allowing this expansion through the chest, through the arms, through the shoulder blades, allowing the upper back to open. Take a nice deep breath here. Maybe even bring your forehead to the mat and just take a cleansing breath, setting an intention for your practice today. Allowing whatever's bothering you with your writing to take a back burner, to be set into a box and put aside for later. Don't carry that into your practice. Come into this practice with the intention to activate your creativity, your creative mind, to believe in yourself, to embrace your inner creative. On your next exhalation, come up to all fours and allow your hips to fall forward, coming into Upward Facing Dog. Taking the thighs up off the mat, pressing into the tops of the feet, stretching the chest forward, allowing the shoulder blades to fall away as you look up. And exhale, Child's Pose. Inhale again into Upward Facing Dog, letting this be a fun, fluid movement as you look up. And exhale, bend the knees, Child's Pose. Letting the back round and then allowing the spine to scoop forward as you lift once again into Upward Facing Dog. Exhale, Child's Pose. Keep it going, just keep this movement super fluid, looking up, maybe even a little bit back if that feels good to your spine. Exhale, Child's Pose. Inhale, Upward Facing Dog. And this time, tuck the toes and press back into Downward Facing Dog. Taking a moment here in our first Downward Dog to just walk out the legs, move the hips, move the arms or shoulders, in whatever way feels super nourishing. Make this fun. Remember when we used to do things just for fun when we were kids, like stretching on the floor and moving around in ways that felt good? I mean, even Child's Pose, it's called that because kids do that. So many of these movements, they're natural, they're intuitive to our bodies. We were born with them and we lose them over time. So let's return to that playfulness here. Let's lose the struggle and return to the playfulness. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, look forward. Step forward to the front of your mat. Inhale, roll slowly up through the spine, reaching up, looking up towards your hands. Exhale, bring your hands down to your heart. Take a moment here with your feet together, your pelvis pressed slightly forward, your palms together, Mountain Pose. Come into your power here. You are a powerful creator. You are experiencing temporary stuck feelings, and that's okay. We can observe that emotion and we can allow it to release. We can let go of it, just like a cloud letting go of rain. We don't have to hold onto it. We don't have to hold onto that heaviness or baggage. Release the hands up, look up, breathe in. Exhale, Forward Fold. Inhale, lift up halfway to your fingertips. Slide your hands up to your thighs or onto your knees, whatever feels good to you here. And then step back into Plank, Chaturanga. Lowering halfway, inhale up into Upward-Facing Dog. Exhale, Downward-Facing Dog. Inhale, look up, step to the top of your mat, rolling all the way up to stand, reaching up, looking up toward the hands. Exhale, let go. Coming down to Earth, releasing the arms, letting the arms be super heavy, keeping the knees bent as you roll up once again, reaching up and just let go. With an audible exhale, release any stagnant energy here. Reach up, exhale, let go. Reach up, exhale, bow forward. Scooping the arms around, reaching all the way up, extending through the spine, let go, release. Couple more times here as you roll up through the spine, reaching up, inhale, fresh energy, fresh oxygen. Release any stuck energy, any stagnation. Inhale, reach up, exhale, Forward Fold. This time, just hanging out in your Forward Fold for a moment, allowing the head to release, allowing the neck to release.

Speaker 2: Inhale, halfway, exhale, Plank, Chaturanga.

Speaker 1: Upward Dog, Downward-Facing Dog. Take a few cleansing breaths here. On your next exhalation, round forward into Plank, look forward, exhale, lift the hips, press back into Downward-Facing Dog. Inhale, reach forward into Plank, coming onto the balls of your feet, look forward, and then curve the spine, pulling the navel to the spine as you press back into Downward-Facing Dog. Inhale, Plank, exhale, Downward-Facing Dog. Make this motion, again, super fluid, super playful. Pulling the navel to the spine as you press back into Downward-Facing Dog. One more time, inhale, Plank, exhale, Downward Dog. On your next inhale, come into Plank, we're going to work the core a little bit here, which I find always, always, always helps me. We're going to tap one foot off the mat and then the other for 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Now into Shoulder Taps, tapping one hand to the shoulder and the other hand to the shoulder, being careful to keep the hips exactly where they are, at least as close to stable as you can, for 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Now hold your Plank, just hold, pull the navel into the spine. Come into your power here, you are strong, feel that fire within you, feel that heat built up through the body. Take a deep breath, five, four, three, two, one. Exhale, Chaturanga, inhale, Upward Facing Dog. Exhale, Downward Facing Dog. Inhale, roll forward into Plank and this time exhale all the way to the belly. Coming up into Sphinx Pose, keeping your elbows directly underneath your shoulders and allowing the chest to open here. Should feel super, super good, beautiful stretch for the core after building up a little heat in the abdominals. And just breathe here, allowing the chest to open, allowing the heart space to open. Take a few cleansing breaths. Find that one of the best ways when I feel stuck in my writing is to get up, get out of that space. Don't just continue beating your head against a wall. Just let it go for a little bit, go do something else. Go get moving, get moving however you need to. Sometimes for me, that's going for a run. Sometimes it's practicing Kata, practicing karate. Sometimes, very often it is rolling out my mat and practicing yoga. So just take this moment to breathe here. Feeling the heart pumping. Just taking a moment of gratitude to be here. So cool. And then come back down, pressing into your hands and coming back into Child's Pose. Taking a breath here before rolling up to your knees. And then we're going to come into a backbend here. It's a pretty deep backbend, so I'm gonna show you a couple of different levels. Coming up to your knees, you can put your hands on your lower back and just allow the back to begin opening up and see how deep you can go, see what feels good here. Allowing the back to arch open. If that feels good to you, stay with that and go as deep as feels right for your body. If you want to go deeper into full camel, you can take one hand onto your heel and then the other and press your pelvis forward, allowing the head to drop back. Breathe. Think about opening your heart here. And then when you're ready to come out, bring one hand to your back and then the other, taking a moment here to just let the spine neutralize before sitting back over to your heels. Just taking a second here so that your spine can neutralize once again. Then we're going to come into one of my favorite postures along the center of your mat, which is cosmic egg. And that's a name that my favorite yoga teachers over at Boho Beautiful often give this. I highly recommend checking out their yoga flows. Their yoga is incredible. And I recommend joining their Boho official app, which has so many great yoga flows for so many things. I'll link all of that below. Can't recommend them enough. I use their flows every single day. Beautiful vinyasa flows and all different types of yoga. But they call this cosmic egg. And you're balancing on your toes. So come onto your tippy toes and then wrap your hands, wrap your arms around your knees and simply tuck your chin toward your knees, coming into this beautiful protected space like an egg. And something about the name of this I just really like because it gives this imagery of being wrapped up, of being protected. We can be so hard on ourselves sometimes and we really don't need to be. We can let go of that. We can give ourselves a hug. We can wrap ourselves in love in this place of protection. We are sheltered. We are protected. Just allow your head to be heavy here as you balance on your toes. If it's too much, the balance you can come to rest on the flats of your feet. And just breathe for a minute here. Then when you're ready, come back down to a seated position, planting your feet in front of you, reaching forward and allowing yourself to roll back slowly, coming once again to our mats and extending into Shavasana, everyone's favorite pose. Allowing your arms to release at your sides, allowing your feet to flop open, taking a few cleansing breaths here as we close off our practice. Allowing the body to become super, super heavy here. And just breathe. You're more than welcome to pause this video and extend your Shavasana. Remain in this loving, beautiful energy you've cultivated through your own unique practice. Stay as long as it serves you and as long as time allows. Otherwise, begin to take a few long breaths, bringing awareness back into the body. Beginning to move your fingers and your toes, your arms and your legs as you reach up over your head, folding your knees into your chest and rolling over onto your side, coming into fetal position for just a moment and pausing here before pressing into your hands and coming up to a seated position along the center of your mat. Taking a moment here, bringing your hands to your chest, feeling your heartbeat, thanking yourself, sending gratitude to your heart for taking this time to tend to yourself creatively, spiritually, emotionally. Sometimes when we feel stuck, we just need to step away. We need to move. We need to breathe. We need to unite our body and our breath once again and come back to our roots, the stillness within us. When you're ready, reach your arms up over your head and bring your palms together, lowering them to your heart and bowing down to your own heart. Thank you so much, my friend, for practicing with me today. I hope this served you in a positive way and I wish you a wonderful rest of your day. Namaste. I just wanted to take this moment, sweet friend, to say thank you so much for taking the time to practice with me. I deeply hope that this could serve you in a positive way, that you enjoyed this yoga practice and that it brought some positive benefit to your daily practice. I wanted to let you know that if you're interested in looking for meditations to tag onto your daily yoga practice or your post-writing yoga retreats, I have a meditation course that I designed specifically for creative writers to help them tap into their inner creator and land here and now in this present moment in order to activate that creative power within us. I designed this course specifically with writers in mind using all the meditation techniques and mantras that helped me so much in my own journey. It's a seven-day journey and it's designed with you in mind, your creativity and alignment with your mind, body, and spirit. If you would like to check it out, if it sounds like something that would serve you in a positive way, you can find the link to that below. I look forward to expanding with you in this glorious and blissful journey. Thank you so much for being here. Be sure to subscribe, click like if you enjoyed this video because I would love to share my next practice with you and have you here in the community. Thank you so much. I send you all my gratitude and light. Namaste. Namaste.